Fringe yet heart-rending, witty gem
ONE of the first shows to air on the first day of this year’s National Arts Festival in Grahamstown was the fringe performance Disruption.
Put on by teenagers in grades 10, 11 and 12 from St Stithians Boys’ College in Johannesburg, this short but intense 40-minute emotionally charged piece was a true gem. It’s written by the pupils themselves and deservedly won the 2017 FEDA (Festival of Excellence in Dramatic Arts) award, selected out of 67 schools that entered.
Relating tales of the vicious crimes against the LGBTQ community in a way that makes them immediate and accessible may sound like an onerous and almost impossible task. But so slick, sassy yet so resonant with the dreadful tales of how society deals with people who are deemed deviant that it pulls at the heart strings without being overly didactic.
It opens on an empty stage, above which beams a screen shot of a Google search page, opening the way for relating current authentic stories of how traditional and homophobic societies deal with people who go against the grain.
At the outset, there’s a stark stage into which the cast bring the props and set, who then move in perfect sync to a snappy beat. A young man steps up on to a box, (played by Reabetswe Botlholo). Wearing a bright red dress stretched across a lithe frame, he tells: “Here’s a young black teenager like myself pulling bitches off the dance floors at clubs”; then relates how an unexpected romance with the school’s “hot rugby player”, goes awry as he’s used as the fall guy to get the boy out of trouble. Bothlolo is excellent as the somewhat bitter, exploited, transgender man, who with a wry but tragic humour relates his tale. “I am a disruption,” he adroitly sums up – the guy who challenges and will always challenge. But there’s the pastor (another sterling performance by young Ntokozo Siyabonga Zwane), who, as the screen beams out, tries to use his insect repellent to exorcise the demons of people who deviate.
As the screen flashes realtime scenes of unspeakable cruelty such as corrective rape they are played out on stage and the audience is also made privy to the heart-rending scene as a bereaved mother mourns her daughter, who was raped and brutally murdered.
The Orlando nightclub massacre is also related, also on screen and with the father of a beloved gay son, who movingly speaks out on stage.
It’s all this and much much more – beautifully choreographed, really well-acted not only considering these are young actors, but in general so cleverly and well executed that it deserves 10 out of 10 for what it portrays and the message it gives out.
It won awards for best director, best chorus and best direction in the awards.
The National Arts Festival runs until July 9.